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The Versatope Team

Our team of scientists and business professionals are dedicated to our mission of delivering immunity through harnessing the power of nature through our potent biotechnology platform.

Christopher Locher, PhD

Dr. Locher is the CEO and Co-Founder and has over 15 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience developing new vaccines and therapeutics for multiple diseases. Prior to Versatope, he was a Senior Director at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston where he held leadership and management roles in large infectious disease R&D programs and international collaborations.

Kumkum Saxena, PhD 

Dr. Saxena is the Vice President, Microbiology and Process Development. She is an expert in protein structure and function with extensive experience in large and small-molecule drug discovery. Prior to joining Versatope, she was a Director of Protein sciences at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she worked for 20 years and was responsible for gene expression and biophysical hit validation-optimization of small molecules. While there, she drove the target identification and validation of the lead influenza candidate that was out-licensed to Johnson & Johnson. She has experience with discovery and early development in several areas of research including oncology, neurology, infectious and rare diseases and haemoglobinopathies. Dr. Saxena holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston University and has postdoctoral fellowships at Brigham & Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute/Harvard Medical School. 



    

Alan Barber

Mr. Barber is the CFO and has worked in the Life Science industry for more than 20 years and has raised over $500M in IPOs, secondary public offerings, private equity and venture capital financing. He and his team at the Prestar Group provide financial, human resources and operation services to early-stage biotechnology companies. He has successfully completed numerous strategic acquisitions and managed the post-transaction integration of acquisitions. He is a Certified Public Accountant and received his B.S. degree from Florida State University. 

              Ly Phan, PhD

Dr. Phan is the Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management & Preclinical Development and has more than 23 years of start-up/biotech and large pharma experience in antibacterial drug discovery and development. Prior to joining Versatope, Dr. Phan was VP of Medicinal Chemistry and Antibacterial Discovery at Warp Drive Bio. Prior to Warp Drive Bio, Dr. Phan held leadership roles at Enanta Pharmaceuticals and at Abbott Laboratories where he led the discovery of numerous antibacterial drugs.

Carlos Faerman, PhD 
Dr. Faerman is an expert in molecular modeling with extensive training in structural biology, chemical physics and protein ligand interactions. He carries out predictions and designs for new vaccine constructs that address the problem of antigenic variation. His previous research at Vertex Pharmaceuticals included molecular interactions and structural biology of protein – ligand complexes. He also has expertise in competitive intelligence and designed DESEI: An electronic database of enzyme substrate and enzyme inhibitor structures. 
Hai-Yen Vu, PhD
Dr. Vu is an experienced scientist with a background in immunology, oncology, cellular and molecular biology. Before joining Versatope Therapeutics, she was at the Health Sciences North Research Institute in Sudbury, Ontario working on drug discovery projects for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago working in the field of hematology/oncology and studied the role of the bone marrow microenvironment in the fate of leukemic stem cells. 
Matthew Parker, PhD
Dr. Parker is a biochemist with over 20 years of experience in protein engineering, biophysical analysis, molecular biology, and production and purification of biomolecules. Before joining Versatope, he worked at several biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Vertex, Immunogen, Merrimack, and Agrivida. Previously, he conducted postdoctoral research in virus assembly and protein design.

Daniel C. Pan, PhD

Dr. Pan is a scientist with a background in plant biochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and oncology. Before Versatope Therapeutics, he was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard University, working on erythrocyte mediated and polymer-drug delivery in disease animal models.  
Maureen Dwyer  
Maureen Dwyer has more than sixteen years of alliance and project management experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She has successfully managed research, development and commercial agreements and has experience in managing all stages of collaboration life cycle with pharmaceutical, biotech, government and academic collaborators. Prior to joining Versatope, she was an Associate Director of Alliance Management in Business Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.  
Erin Neff
Erin Neff holds a Master's degree in Integrative and Organismal Biology from the University of New Hampshire. She has experience with molecular biology, microbiological strain construction, protein assays, and flow cytometry assays. Prior to joining Versatope, she worked in drug target validation in the Yeast Discovery Biology lab at Yumanity Therapeutics in Cambridge, MA. New Paragraph  
Jessica Cote
Jessica Cote is a biologist who earned a Master’s of Science in Biotechnology from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Prior to joining the Versatope team, she studied the elemental enrichment of the exoskeleton of disease carrying ticks in Dr. Rick Hochberg’s Biodiversity laboratory at University of Massachusetts Lowell. 
Janel Romagnoli
Janel Romagnoli is a biologist with research experience in microbiology, immunology, and drug metabolism. She received a BA in Biology from The College of Wooster in 2018.
Nicole Diggins Locher 
Nicole Diggins Locher is a strategic marketing professional with 10+ years experience in the health care, consumer packaged goods and non profit industries. She specializes in harnessing customer insight and research to craft compelling marketing stories, content marketing, brand identity, positioning, new products and programs. Her past roles in the health care industry have included strategic marketing, product development and e-health for Blue Shield of California. 
Hetalben Patel
Hetalben Patel is microbiologist working on our vaccine development programs. Prior to joining Versatope, she worked at Knipbio and Middlesex Community College as a laboratory technician preparing reagents and performing experiments. She will be graduating in December with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology from Northeastern University. 
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